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WASHINGTON – He has the accomplishments worthy of a Hall of Famer, the esteem of his peers more suited to an elder and icon status, thanks to his accomplishments and good works, on two continents.
Yet Salvador Pérez is still just 34 years old, still one of the greatest catchers in baseball, still producing at a rate more befitting a younger man, and returning to the game’s postseason stage for the first time in a decade.
Pérez, the Kansas City Royals’ pillar and increasingly playing that role for ballplayers from his native Venezuela, is far from done. But in his advanced professional age, he has learned to embrace the role of exemplar, be it in his clubhouse, his homeland or his adopted hometown, where he leans into a role as the host with the most.
“It’s always good when people try to be like you,” says Pérez. “Especially for your country.”
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Friday night, the Royals clinched a playoff berth for the first time since winning the 2015 World Series. Pérez, then 25, was Most Valuable Player of that Fall Classic, batting .364 with an .846 OPS and driving in the game-tying run during the Royals’ dramatic ninth-inning rally in Game 5 at New York’s Citi Field.
It’s a testament to Pérez’s staying power to consider where his contemporaries were on that night.
Freddie Fermin, the Royals’ backup catcher, was a freshly-signed 20-year-old watching the game alongside fellow minor league hopefuls at the franchise’s academy in the Dominican Republic.
Seth Lugo, now a veteran of nine major league seasons, was at the Mets’ minor league facility in Port St. Lucie, coming off a Class AAA season and hoping against hope his organizational mates could push the Royals to a Game 6. Now, Lugo leads the major leagues with 204⅔ innings pitched and has won 16 games for these Royals.
Pérez? He’s been here all along, through three subsequent 100-loss seasons for the Royals and an ownership change.
No matter.
“It feels like yesterday,” says Pérez.
‘He always gives us an extra hand’
Perhaps that’s because his fellow champions are never too far down his string of text messages. Ask Pérez which ’15 Royals he keeps in touch with and it sounds like a recitation of that squad’s Baseball-Reference page.
Luke Hochevar. Eric Hosmer. Lorenzo Cain. Jarrod Dyson. Mike Moustakas. Danny Duffy. Wade Davis. Greg Holland. The trainers, various position coaches, manager Ned Yost – Pérez keeps them all close at hand.
Yet the impression his mates left on him may not rival Pérez’s impact on peers who cross his path.
Pérez’s Kansas City home serves as a waystation for ballplayers hungry for fellowship and a good meal. It is there that Pérez’s mother, Yilda, cooks up delicacies for his many visitors.
For the past three years, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Anthony Santander has counted Pérez as a close friend, enjoying Yilda’s empanadas and Pérez’s guidance.
“All the experience he has, the time he has in the league, and he’s a really good person,” says Santander, who has a career-high 44 home runs this season. “Besides what he does on the field, outside the field he’s a great person. He’s right there trying to help you get better.
“He always gives us an extra hand to keep going forward.”
Pérez takes his role as a beacon for Venezuelan players seriously, realizing his position following in the footsteps of Luis Aparicio, Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and others. He describes his Kansas City dinner guests as a virtual rainbow coalition of ballplayers – Venezuelans, Dominicans, American-born players, bonds forged over years.
In Venezuela, however, his impact is never forgotten.
Veteran major league infielder Juan Yepez was 16 years old and playing with Pérez’s winter ball team, the Tiburones de La Guaira. Pérez was a 24-year-old just getting started in the big leagues.
“I remember his hands were huge. I was a 16-year-old kid, just saying hey, nice to meet you, and whoa, how strong this guy is,” says Yepez of a player who’s hit 273 career home runs, 10th all time among catchers.
“He’s a perfect example of hard work and being successful in the best baseball in the world and getting better and better.”
The examples resonate even deeper for catchers.
Keibert Ruiz, the Washington Nationals’ catcher, counts Pérez as a neighbor in their Venezuelan hometown of Valencia and became fast friends after meeting just a couple years ago. Pérez’s example has resonated with Ruiz for more than a decade but perhaps even moreso with Ruiz, now 26, approaching the midpoint of his own career.
“He inspires me to play baseball,” says Ruiz, in the second year of an eight-year, $50 million contract. “To me, he’s a Hall of Famer. He’s made Venezuela happy and everyone’s proud of what he’s done on the field and outside it.
“A lot of kids want to be like him. I was in that position. I know.”
Pérez remains an offensive force, hitting 27 home runs and posting a .792 OPS, tops among AL catchers and second only to Milwaukee’s William Contreras. The lone concession to his age is the games spent at first base or designated hitter – 48 and 23 starts, respectively.
Yet that opens a lane for Fermin, who grew up from that 20-year-old kid in the Royals’ academy to a player in his third year as Pérez’s backup.
“I always say, for me, it is an honor being next to him,” says Fermin, 29 and a native of Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela. “I’m learning the most I can about baseball, or whatever outside the game. It’s an honor to be next to him.
“When I saw them on TV, playing in the World Series, I was so excited. And now, I’m next to him.”
And just what does Pérez mean for Venezuelan ballplayers?
“Example. Discipline,” says Fermin. “Anything can happen. We can control what we can control.
“But he works hard – no matter what happens.”
‘He’s been here his whole adult life’
Indeed, Pérez’s work ethic is legendary, lingering in the weight room after games for workouts, guarding his 6-3, 255-pound frame against the ravages of time. On Venezuela’s World Baseball Classic team, he is the de facto leader.
On the Royals, he is the actual captain, named to that post before the 2023 season, a designation a decade in the making and one the franchise only bestowed upon Hall of Famer George Brett.
“He always played. He’s playing 150-something games a year. Catching,” says Royals manager Matt Quatraro, now in his second year. “What I’ve learned since I’ve been here is he’s a tremendous person. Tremendously consistent in his attitude, going through last year. The drive to win is something that’s unparalleled.
“He works extremely hard. (Leadership) is natural. People respect him. They know what he’s done, know what he’s meant to the community, the organization.
“He’s been here his whole adult life.”
In that span, the Royals have endured many more lean years than memorable ones. They lost 90 and 91 games in Pérez’s first two seasons, before an 86-win breakthrough in 2013. A young core that stewed together for years – Hosmer and Moustakas and Alex Gordon and now, this young wedge of a catcher – finally solidified in 2014. Kansas City took a wild ride from the wild card game all the way to Game 7 of the World Series.
Pérez made the final out of Game 7, a foul popout against Madison Bumgarner, with the tying run on third base.
A year later, they would not be denied, Pérez driving in the tying run in the top of the ninth and singling to start the game-winning, five-run rally in the 12th inning of Game 5. Yet the Royals have not finished above .500 since, and Pérez would miss the 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
How does a respected veteran stay resolute in the face of such futility, including a 106-loss campaign in Quatraro’s first season?
“That we have a chance,” says Pérez, who along with his wife Maria Gabriela has three children. “Baseball – it’s about opportunity. Everybody is going to have some tough moments in this game.
“I think my family motivates me. My teammates – playing for the city of Kansas City. Play hard, every day, no matter what.”
That service extends well off the field. For the third time in four years, Pérez is the Royals’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s most prestigious philanthropic honor.
His good works on the diamond extend to both continents, donating $1 million to a Royals youth academy while also providing equipment for his youth league in Venezuela. His charitable work off the field extends not only to Valencia but also across the border into Colombia, where he traveled during the COVID-19 pandemic to lend support.
Pérez has signed a pair of contract extensions in Kansas City, and his four-year, $82 million pact includes a 2026 club option. His .273/.333/.459 slash line is excellent for a catcher but for the run-starved Royals, his 103 RBI is lifeblood, pairing with MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr.’s 109 RBI to provide the bulk of their run production.
There are few signs of slowing down.
‘He’s still got a lot of gas,’ says the Orioles’ Santander. ‘He looks great.’
So do the Royals: At 85-75, they’ll need to punch their way through the wild card round, at Baltimore or Houston. For Pérez, it’s a return nearly 10 years in the making, the postseason stage a worthy place for one of the game’s rocks.
“A tremendous amount,” says Quatraro of how badly he wants it for Pérez. “He wants to win more than anything and I think it was a concept the last couple years.
“This year? More of a reality.”
This post appeared first on USA TODAY
